Like once in May
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Like once in May |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Walter and Willi Kollo |
| Libretto : | Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph Schanzer |
| Premiere: | October 4, 1913 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Berlin 1838, 1858, 1888 and 1913 |
| people | |
|
|
As in May, there is an operetta in four pictures by Walter and Willi Kollo . The original libretto from 1913 was written by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph Schanzer . The work had its world premiere on October 4, 1913 in the Berlin Theater in Berlin . The composer's son, Willi Kollo, got a new musical and textual version in 1943 together with cabaret artist Walter Lieck , which also contains some new musical numbers by Willi Kollo. In this version, the work was first performed on May 26, 1943 in the Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Andreas Gergen and Steven Gross made a further revision in 2005 especially for the Schlossparktheater Berlin by bringing the operetta closer to the musical. The article deals with the original version.
orchestra
Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, percussion and strings
action
First picture
Room on an estate, 1838
The locksmith's apprentice Fritz Jüterbog is madly in love with the young noblewoman Ottilie von Henkeshoven. The latter also reciprocates his love, but her parents have a high class which does not allow them to combine the nobility and the proletariat. Fritz is desperate and turns his back on his hometown. From now on he wants to look for happiness in America.
Second picture
Ballroom Kroll, 1858
Fritz made his fortune in a foreign country. He returns home as a rich man. Ottilie was forced by her family to marry her cousin, the Baron Ernst Cicero von Henkeshoven. For them, marriage turns out to be a martyrdom. Her husband is a real hallodri who always seeks his luck with demi-world ladies. Fritz and Ottilie meet at a ball and remember old times.
Third picture
Salon in a country house, 1888
Fritz has now been given a special honor: the emperor elevated him to hereditary nobility because of his great services to the fatherland. He is now called Kommerzienrat von Jüterbog.
Ottilie's marriage to her easy-going cousin has broken up. The daughter Vera emerged from this marriage. Fritz 'son Heinrich has had an eye on them. When Heinrich Vera makes a marriage proposal, she rejects him; because her heart belongs to Arthur Müller, who works as a senior engineer in Fritz Jüterbog's factory.
Ottilie begs her childhood friend Fritz to see that his son stops courting her daughter. Fritz is not at all happy about that, he would like to see the two families come a little closer. But nevertheless he promises Ottilie to grant her wish. Together they remember the beautiful days of youth.
Fourth picture
A fashion salon, 1913
75 years have passed since Fritz Jüterbog and Ottilie von Henkeshoven confessed their love to each other in May. Both have since passed away. Now her grandchildren Fred von Jüterbog and Tilla Müller have met and fallen in love. Times have changed tremendously. There is no one left who could forbid the two lovers from marrying each other.
Apart from her granddaughter Tilla, only her father Stanislaus of Methuselah still lives of Ottilie's family. He lives up to his family name because he really has reached a biblical age. He was married three times; but he outlived all of his wives. Despite his age, he is still very sprightly and now wants to try a fourth time with a new wife.
Known songs
- That was in Schöneberg, in May
- The men are all criminals
- Unter Linden, Unter Linden
- There's nothing, nothing, nothing about Berlin
The men are all criminals was rewritten in 1915 - like other entertainment songs of the time - by an unknown lyricist as the propaganda song in The Serbs Are All Criminals and recorded by the lecture artist Hermann Wehling (1873-1922) among others.
Web links
- Information about the new version by Willy Kollo from Felix-Bloch-Erben
- Criticism in the Berliner Zeitung on April 29, 2005 about a new production at the Schlossparktheater
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1914/1915: "The Serbs are all criminals" (song) - The First World War. In: SWR2 archive radio. April 27, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018 .